episode_0153

“How is it after looking?”

“Hmm~”

Lucy drew out the end of her words to my question.

Lucy, who had been examining something slowly, nodded her head lightly.

“It seems certain. It seems right that the magical beasts have been altered due to external factors. A strange energy has eroded the corpse of the Blue Tiger. It seems a little different from what I remember because of this.”

“Is that so?”

“But it’s not certain. At least one…. No, if there were about 2-3 samples for discrimination, it would be certain….”

Lucy, who examined the Blue Tiger subdued by Seol-lin, came to a conclusion and shook off her hands.

“If it’s an external factor, is it because of the contaminated World Tree after all?”

“Well? As I said before, I came here hundreds of years ago. Something might have changed in the Blue Tigers in those hundreds of years…. I’ll have to check the World Tree directly to know the details. In addition, samples of about 2-3 species too.”

Lucy, who shrugged her shoulders and spoke, washed her bloody hands with water.

I stroked Lucy’s head once as a sign of appreciation, and then turned my gaze to Baek-ryeon.

Baek-ryeon and Seol-lin were disassembling the Blue Tiger that I and Baek-ryeon had sliced.

“It’s your first time seeing a magical beast, but you’re disassembling it well.”

“Um. It’s similar to the form of four-legged monsters. It wasn’t that difficult to disassemble.”

“And there’s more meat than I thought, so there’s a lot to eat.”

Baek-ryeon and Seol-lin said, smiling.

I asked Baek-ryeon and Seol-lin to disassemble the Blue Tiger. Even if we had prepared some food before coming here, we don’t know how long we’ll have to stay in the Western Continent, so it’s good to get food when we can.

That’s why I asked, but… they were doing better than I thought.

There’s no need to worry about food storage because it’s always kept fresh if you put it in the inventory.

While Baek-ryeon and Seol-lin were disassembling the Blue Tiger amicably, I approached Levia, who was watching from a distance.

“Levia.”

“Y-Yes?!”

“It’s your first time encountering a magical beast so suddenly, are you okay?”

“Yes, yes! Baek-ryeon unni and Seol-lin unni are protecting me well, so I’m okay.”

I was worried that she might be very surprised, but I’m glad she’s okay.

…Come to think of it, the Gold Road area where Levia was working was a place where magical beasts were more violent and appeared more frequently than even compared to the Western Continent.

Basically, they would have built villages in places where magical beasts don’t appear often, but magical beasts wouldn’t have passed by the villages quietly.

There would be magical beasts attacking the village, so Levia would have seen magical beasts attacking the village several times.

“Disassembly complete~ Master~”

“Okay.”

After putting all the Blue Tiger disassembled by the two people into the inventory, I roughly cleaned up the surroundings.

“By the way, you said this was the Blue Tiger’s territory, right?”

“Yes.”

“Then, if we keep wandering around here, the Blue Tigers will keep gathering, right?”

“That’s right.”

Dealing with the Blue Tigers themselves is not a problem.

It doesn’t matter how much they rush at us.

As much as I can cut down all the Blue Tigers in one strike, I don’t care about their numbers, but….

If they keep attacking, it might be a considerable burden on Levia and the others.

Lucy, noticing my concern, shrugged her shoulders and said.

“When we reach the Orc’s territory, these magical beast attacks may decrease.”

“Is there something different about the Orc’s territory?”

“Even if they are magical beasts, the main point is that they are the same as animals. Animals basically rarely change their territory once they have decided on it. Magical beasts also rarely leave their territory.”

“In other words, if we go to the Orcs’ territory, the magical beasts don’t approach because of the Orcs who hunt them?”

Hmm….

Then I should hurry to reach the Orc’s territory.

If we can get to the Orc’s territory, we can rest a little, or we can investigate the surrounding area, centering on the Orc’s territory.

“But are you going to investigate the surrounding area?”

“That’s right. Are you dissatisfied?”

“I’m not dissatisfied with what the Hero is doing. I just wonder if we’re going too far.”

“….”

I think I know what Lucy wants to say.

No matter how much the dwarves or elves rush at us, they are the same as the Blue Tigers in the end.

No matter how many there are, they can’t be my opponent.

So, if we just crash into the World Tree right away without going through the trouble like this, it will be resolved.

But….

“There’s no need to make enemies unnecessarily. If it’s something that can be ended with good words, then it will be ended, and if we can’t persuade them with words…, then we’ll compete with force at that time.”

“That’s right~”

After deciding that, we took another step.

The goal, as I’ve said many times, is the Orc’s territory, but the Blue Tigers’ territory was so wide that getting out of their territory itself was a huge task.

Besides, maybe it’s because of the berserk state, but these guys don’t care about the opponent’s strength at all and chase after our traces, so it’s quite annoying. No matter how overwhelmingly we win, they forget that their comrades have been defeated and rush at me as they are.

“Lucy! Is the Orc’s territory far?”

“Um…. I don’t remember the exact location either….”

“Tsk…. If I had known this would happen, I should have gotten a map or something from the Orcs?….”

“Um~ Orcs’ maps wouldn’t have been of much help.”

Because they are such a primitive tribe, it’s not an accurately measured and drawn map, but just a rough summary of large, eye-catching elements, so it’s not even something you can call a map. Lucy added.

‘Tsk…. The map system is broken since I came to the Western Continent.’

In the case of the Central Continent and the Eastern Continent, the system absorbed the Central and Eastern Continent maps that I had bought at the general store before leaving for a full-fledged trip, so I could wander around without worrying about getting lost.

But as soon as I entered the area outside that map, the Western Continent, the map broke down, so to be honest, I even doubted whether I was going in the right direction.

“But the trees are starting to decrease little by little. It’s proof that we’re getting out of the forest.”

“If they have similar habits to tigers, they will mainly use the forest as their territory, so if we can get out of this forest, the attacks will be greatly reduced.”

Baek-ryeon and Seol-lin said, comforting me as I was annoyed.

It would be nice if that were the case, but….

If they rush at me again, I might end up destroying this area without realizing it.

“Ah…, it seems like we’ve arrived now.”

Just when I was feeling the limit of my patience, Lucy, who was walking ahead, pointed somewhere with her hand as if she had found something.

Lucy’s fingertips were probably pointing to the exit of the forest.

In addition, there was something like a totem decorated with the skull of a large beast.

In the circumstances, it’s probably the head of a Blue Tiger. Did they put up such a totem to let people know it’s their territory?

“I don’t know if it’s the High Orc side or the Red Orc side…, but that doesn’t matter, does it?”

“Ah….”

We have arrived in the Orc’s territory.

* * *

It certainly seemed like this was the Orcs’ territory.

Because the Orcs had abandoned this place and advanced to the Central Continent, there was no one to manage it, so old and abandoned Orcs’ tents were visible here and there. We pitched a tent in a suitable location among them.

“Hero.”

“Huh?”

“That, what you see over there is the World Tree.”

“?”

The World Tree is visible from here?

Perhaps because we had been wandering through the dense forest until now, it was difficult to see the World Tree with our own eyes, but the World Tree seems to be visible in this terrain, which is close to a plain.

When I turned my gaze in the direction Lucy was pointing, in the distance.

The appearance of a huge tree that was barely visible from a very far distance caught my eye.

“That’s the World Tree….”

“Judging by the extent to which it’s visible…. It would take about 3 months to get there if we just walked normally.”

“3 months….”

That’s a lot of time.

“If we run?”

“The Hero won’t get tired easily, so we’ll arrive faster than that…, but I’m worried about me and the others.”

“….”

It’s taking more time than I thought….

While I was wondering what to do, something brushed against my senses.

I quickly turned my head in that direction, but there was nothing there but the collapsing Orcs’ tents.

“Hero?”

Baek-ryeon, Seol-lin, and Levia, who had gone to find something useful around because they were curious about my actions, tilted their heads and ran over.

“What’s wrong?”

“…I think there was something.”

However, there was nothing there.

There was just a cloud of dust swirling because I kicked it with my foot.

“Is there someone else here besides us?”

“…I don’t know. I guess I felt it wrong.”

* * *

That evening.

This area was completely Orcs’ territory, so there were no Blue Tiger attacks.

Thanks to this, Baek-ryeon and the others were able to sleep peacefully for the first time in a long time, and I stood guard with Lucy.

“I can be alone.”

“What are you talking about? Blood Demons are called the race of the night, so night is when they show their true power?”

“That’s…, that’s true.”

Crackle, crackle.

While watching the bonfire that was burning with a pleasant noise, I heard something rustling.

Is it the things I sensed during the day?

I couldn’t sense it properly because it was a sudden situation then, but it’s different now that I’m fully prepared.

I can feel it clearly.

The signs of those guys under the ground.

“What a perfect day to die.”

“Pardon?”

“…Don’t you think?”

When I turned my gaze to the side, there was nothing there.

I slowly drew my holy sword.

When it came to that point, Lucy also felt that I had sensed something and stepped back slightly.

“I’ll give you 10 seconds, so get out here quickly.”

Silence.

…You’re not coming out?

“ ”

Bang!!!

“Earth Split.”

I split the ground and completely blow it up.

Then, the appearance of the guys hiding in the ground was revealed.

“Aaaaaaah!!!”

“W-What’s going on~!!”

“Is it explosives?!!!”

Short height.

Wide body from side to side.

That is….

“…Dwarf?”

It was a dwarf.